1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of manufacturing a flexible display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Much research into display devices, such as organic light-emitting display devices, has been conducted owing to their thin profile and flexibility in terms of driving characteristics.
Recently, a flexible display device that forms a display unit on a flexible soft substrate has been in the spotlight.
Such a flexible display device is manufactured by coating a soft material, such as polyimide, on a hard carrier substrate, forming a soft substrate, forming a display unit on the soft substrate, and separating the carrier substrate and the soft substrate from each other.
However, when the carrier substrate and the soft substrate are separated from each other, incomplete separation frequently occurs partly because a part of thin film layers formed on the soft substrate spreads outside the soft substrate and directly sticks to the carrier substrate during a manufacturing process. The soft substrate is well separated from the carrier substrate if heat is appropriately applied to the soft substrate, whereas thin film layers directly sticking to the carrier substrate are not separated. Thus, in this case, if the carrier substrate is removed, because a surplus portion of the directly sticking thin film layers is not separated from the carrier substrate, problematically, an end portion of the flexible display device adjacent to the surplus portion is forcibly removed (or ripped) during a separation process.
As a result, a bad product is produced, and thus a solution to this is desired.